Planning = Success
Sept. 10, 2020
By Mark David
When you think of living a successful life, one consistent factor that proactive individuals do is to plan to be successful.
The first place to start with every plan or project is to create a clear vision of the desired future state. In other words, start with the end in mind and work backwards to the beginning. As you create these steps you should define why the vision and the plan is important for you to accomplish.
The ‘why’ provides the energy you’ll need to execute your plan. Many times, as you execute your plan, you’re going to reach obstacles and bottlenecks that are not in your favor. This happens to everyone who has a plan, the key is persistence. Persistence in your feelings, attitude and actions. Also a consistency of working, being proactive about strategically building the time to plan into each day.
With that said, I advise people to preplan the year, month, week, day in advance. Here is a very successful, structured, disciplined approach to planning your week and day:
Each week on Thursday afternoon look at your upcoming weeks schedule/calendar. Take an inventory of all your meetings. Fill in times that other activities need to be done. Think about what you can do to make sure all of your meetings will have the best outcome; do I need to do a few things this week to support next week? People? Resources? Practice?
The key is to proactively think and plan ahead of time. The best way and the shortest amount of time spent on a project is to plan it out. Set aside a 90-minute block of time to really put a dent in the project. For the first 20-minutes make a list of the materials, tools, people you’ll need to get the job done. Spend the next 60-minutes attacking the project. Roll up your sleeves and get to work – uninterrupted time bears the best results. Spend the last 10-minutes wrapping up where you are with the project so it’s easy to pick up where you left off.
Reflect each night on your next day. Spend 30-minutes the night before. Take into view your vision for the year, your goals for the week. Each segment of 30-minute that you allocate will give you maximum impact.
A successful life takes this type of consistent planning. Make the commitment now to start to build more planning into your life. You are worth it!
Appreciate the Day,
Mark David
